The present invention relates to a sheet material for heat exchange between fluids in order to cause phase change in the fluids.
Heat exchangers and evaporators are used today as standard equipment for efficient heating or cooling, heat recovery, condensation and evaporation. Heat exchangers and/or evaporators may be of different types and designs, depending on, inter alia, what type of medium is to be heated or cooled, requirements to be met, available space etc.
The efficiency of the heat exchanger or evaporator, i.e., its ability to transfer the heat between the two media that are to be “heat-exchanged” will be highly dependent on how clean the surface of a barrier separating the two media is. In many applications of heat exchangers or evaporators, the media employed, for example, sea water, will cause a soiling of the barrier surface, as a result of biological fouling, deposits, physical particles or the like, this soiling substantially reducing the efficiency of the heat exchanger over time. This will mean that after being in use for some time, and when the heat transfer capacity approaches a specific minimum level, the heat exchanger will require cleaning.
In the marine sector or industry, heat exchangers are used for cooling, inter alia, the propulsion machinery of a vessel etc., where sea water is used as “cooling medium”. Here, the cleaning of heat exchangers will be both critical and absolutely essential in order to maintain the vessel's required propulsive power. Such heat exchangers or, in a further developed form, evaporators, can also be used in desalination of sea water, for providing drinking water etc.
WO 95/30867 A1 and NO 316475 B1 describe heat exchanger elements and the manufacture thereof, where it is known that the heat exchanger elements consist of a sheet that is folded to form a plurality of spaces or slits, the sheet separating fluids that are to be heat exchanged, each fluid flowing in slits on each side of the sheet.
A heat exchanger according to the present invention should be understood to mean devices that can be used for heat exchange with and without evaporation. A typical device for heat exchange with evaporation will be an evaporator.
EP 909.928 A1 relates to a heat exchanger unit that is used in connection with heat recovery in a building or house, where a plurality of folded sheets are arranged in a housing, so as to form the heat exchange unit.
GB 512.689, US 2004/0206486 A1 and US 2009/0229804 A1 teach further embodiments of heat exchangers and heat exchanger elements.
A common feature of the aforementioned heat exchangers and heat exchanger units is that after being in use for some time they will have to be cleaned, which means that the heat exchanger or heat exchanger unit must be dismantled, the various elements cleaned and then reassembled.